The Oxford Handbook of Political Economy

Edited by Barry R. Weingast and Donald A. Wittman

Description

Over its long lifetime, "political economy" has had many different meanings: the science of managing the resources of a nation so as to provide wealth to its inhabitants for Adam Smith; the study of how the ownership of the means of production influenced historical processes for Marx; the study of the inter-relationship between economics and politics for some twentieth-century commentators; and for others, a methodology emphasizing individual rationality (the economic or "public choice" approach) or institutional adaptation (the sociological version). This Handbook views political economy as a grand (if imperfect) synthesis of these various strands, treating political economy as the methodology of economics applied to the analysis of political behavior and
institutions.

This Handbook surveys the field of political economy, with fifty-eight chapters ranging from micro to macro, national to international, institutional to behavioral, methodological to substantive. Chapters on social choice, constitutional theory, and public economics are set alongside ones on voters, parties and pressure groups, macroeconomics and politics, capitalism and democracy, and international political economy and international conflict.

The Oxford Handbook of Political Economy

Edited by Barry R. Weingast and Donald A. Wittman

Reviews and Awards

"This is an impressive book in every dimension."--Randall G. Holcombe, Public Choice

"The overall quality of writing and analysis is high, and the bibliographies are very valuable...Highly recommended."--Choice

"This volume comprises a thorough and definitive overview, written by the top people in the field, of the research frontier of political economy. It will be required reading for students, and essential reference material for scholars active in the field, for many years to come."--Avinash K. Dixit, John J. F. Sherrerd '52 University Professor of Economics, Princeton University

"The thoughtful essays in the Handbooks are far more than literature reviews. Scholars and students will find them to be a valusable resource for many years to come."--Morris P. Fiorina, Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and Wendt Family Professor of Political Science, Stanford Univeristy